Secaucus Nurse First To Get COVID Vaccine At Hudson County Site

SECAUCUS, NJ — Hudson County's public coronavirus vaccine site opened Wednesday, and a nurse from Secaucus High School was the very first to get the vaccine there.

"I am extremely grateful," said Kathy Gerbasio Wednesday, just before she got her shot. "I am not nervous at all. I'd rather get the vaccine then get the coronavirus."

The Hudson County site is called the USS Juneau Center and it is located at 110 Hackensack Avenue in Kearny. The site received its first shipment of the Moderna vaccine this week, and will start vaccinating front-line healthcare workers Wednesday and Thursday, even working on Christmas Eve to give out the shots.

Gerbasio had the honor of being the very first to be vaccinated, at 3 p.m. Wednesday.

"I knew I would get it very soon, but I did not expect them to ask me to be the very first one," she said. "I'm very humbled and honored to have been asked."

Hudson County is the first county in the entire state of New Jersey to open a county-wide vaccination center.

Gerbasio worked as the school nurse at Secaucus High School for years. But once COVID hit and the school closed down, she sprung into action and volunteered to do COVID testing at Hudson Regional Hospital, which was designated as the county's official COVID test site (that's why the line of cars was so long every day).

Every day since March, Gerbasio has coordinated the testing of thousands of COVID cases.

"I've stuck my head into, Oh I don't know, 16,000 potential COVID cars, greeted them, taken their paperwork and then helped with testing," said Gerbasio, who is also the wife of Secaucus Councilman John Gerbasio.

How on earth did she herself not get COVID?

"It's all the PPE," she said. "It works when you wear it correctly. The white hazmat suits, double gloves, N95 masks, even shoe coverings. We were covered from head to toe. We looked like we were in the movie 'Outbreak.' We still dress like that!"

Gerbasio did this all for free, entirely volunteer as she is a member of the Hudson County Medical Reserve Corps. So she is used to springing into action when disaster strikes.

She said she always knew she would be among the first to get the vaccine, and she has been "very excited" to receive it. She got her first shot today and was scheduled to return for the booster 28 days later.

The USS Juneau will vaccinate a few other healthcare workers Wednesday, and then start the full vaccinations Thursday. All healthcare workers will be vaccinated first, then emergency responders and then members of the general public older than 65.

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